1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a paper sheet bundle processing apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus that receives bundles of paper sheets (e.g. bank notes), removes large bands from the thus received bundles, and produces sheaves individually bound with a small band.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional bank note inspection processing system, a paper sheet bundle processing apparatus has been employed. The apparatus receives bundles having a prescribed number of sheaves, each of the sheaves having a prescribed number of bank notes. The apparatus then removes large bands from the thus received bundles so as to release the sheaves. Further, the apparatus extracts sheaves one at a time from the released sheaves. The procedures performed by the apparatus will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 29, and is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent SHO 64-38893. Specifically, the apparatus receives a bundle T bound with a vertical large band K1 and a horizontal large band K2. The bands K1 and K2 are cut by a vertical band cutter 1101 and a horizontal band cutter 1102, respectively. The bands K1 and K2, which have been cut, are sandwiched and pulled away by catches 1103 and 1104, respectively. As a result, the bands K1 and K2 are removed. After the removal of the bands K1 and K2, a sheaf H is extracted from the thus released sheaves. The extracted sheaf H has a small band K, which is to be removed in the subsequent process. However, the bands K1 and K2 cannot be completely removed only by the catches 1103 and 1104. Thus, the residue of the bands K1 and K2 are inevitably sent to the subsequent small band removing process. As a result, the residue of the bands K1 and K2 have some adverse effects on the small band removing process.
Further, in the above-described conventional apparatus, the prescribed steps such as receiving the bundle T, cutting the vertical and horizontal bands K1 and K2, removing the thus cut bands, and extracting a sheaf one by one from the released sheaves are performed as a series of processes. Moreover, in the conventional apparatus, a subsequent bundle cannot be received until the prescribed processing of the preceding bundle has ended. Thus, even a small failure or delay in any process inevitably causes the entire process to slow or at worst be stopped. As a result, the efficiency of bank note processing has been extremely low.